


The cruelty of the world

by Kurohebi



Series: Sheith month 2018 [5]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, M/M, Season 4 Finale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-20
Updated: 2018-07-20
Packaged: 2019-06-13 12:41:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15364935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kurohebi/pseuds/Kurohebi
Summary: What would have happened in the finale of season4 if Lotor was a few ticks late?Sheithmoth day17





	The cruelty of the world

**Author's Note:**

> I finally finished it. Just 3 days late -.-" Hope you enjoy.

“Good work Keith.” Shiro said into his helmet, the communication system transmitted it to Keith. But he didn’t answer, his words met with dead silence.   
“Keith are you there?” He tried again but in the pit of his stomach a dreadful feeling made itself a home. He knew he started breathing faster than he normally would.   
“Maybe the communication system shat down. We will try to reach Matt and the other rebels, maybe that will work. If not, we ask Coran to try and make something with it.” Suggested Allura with calm voice. “Yeah, that’s a good idea.” Lance agreed with her instantly. “Yeah, we will do as you said. Pidge try to reach Matt. We still going over there as fast as we can.” Everybody answered with excited ‘Rogers, Yes sirs’. They are half way to the rebel’s spot when Matt’s voice ring into Voltron.  
“Hey there guys.” His voice lacked any joy even after that they won a battle, it rang alarm bells in Shiro’s ears. “What’s up Matt?” Pidge asked, it was a light question, but they knew what she meant by it. “We lost our force’s one third.” Came the answer. The paladins silently mourned their losses for a second before Shiro, tried to lift the mood. “But you did a good job, the planet is safe, and you stopped Haggar.”   
Matt remained silent, as if he thought how to express himself. It didn’t help Shiro’s heart, as the feeling from earlier sank its fangs into him.   
“It wasn’t us.” He said silently. Shiro’s pain eased a little at that, and heard Black purring a bit, as if it shared his emotions on this, on Keith.   
“How do you mean, it wasn’t you?” Hunk asked the real question.  
“It was Keith. And a galra ship.” Their mind instantly wandered to the only galra ship that would be able to take out the witch’s. “Lotor.” They said together. Then it sank in.  
“What do you mean it was Keith?” Pidge asked it, as Shiro couldn’t say it, his words died in his throat as he tried to speak. Even Black made a confused sound of hers. 

“He…he sacrificed himself. He flew into the barrier to bring it down. If the ship arrived just a second sooner…” He trailed off. They didn’t need any more information.

Keith was dead.

That’s what they knew. Shiro felt as if his heart was ripped out of him, he heard the others crying voices, but their words vanished into the space, he didn’t hear them, his own misery was too much to bear, he couldn’t deal with the others too, not when the love of his life was declared dead.  
“I tried to stop him Shiro. I swear I tried.” Pleaded Matt, as it was his fault. Shiro wanted to blame him for not stopping Keith, but he knew it wasn’t his fault.  
“It’s okay Matt, I’m not mad at you.” It felt like choking on his words, but he needed to make sure Matt knew he didn’t blame him and he shouldn’t blame himself either. He could hear from his friend’s voice he knew what he felt and blamed himself for his death. He was the leader, he needed to hold the team together.   
“We are nearly there Matt. We will deal with Lotor.” He stated in a steady voice, avoiding the issue of Keith for the time they aren’t there. Even if it killed him slowly, as if somebody tried to kill him with small blades, from the inside.

They split up as they reached their destination. Pidge with Green went to his brother, he needed her as much as it was true for the other way. “I won’t give up on Keith, he didn’t give up on me, it’s time for me to find him.” Shiro said, and his tone didn’t leave place for argument. Nobody tried to stop him. “I’ll go and deal with Lotor.” Said Allura. The paladins fell into their role for that moment. “I’ll go with the princess.” Stated Lance in Red, but his lion didn’t fly after the blue one. “Come on Red, girl, we need to make sure she is safe.” But Red didn’t do anything at all. When Lance tried to force her, she made a displeased sound and just spit her paladin out. And with that she made her way after the black lion and her paladin to search for Keith.

Lance floated around in the space until Hunk and his lion came to his rescue. “I can’t believe Red left me for Keith.” He complained to Hunk. “I can see why, but she has a bond with Keith too.” Answered Hunk to him.  
Meanwhile Shiro searched trough the battle field for any trace of Keith. As the ticks grew on him he felt heavier with guilt, sorrow and grief. He didn’t want to acknowledge his death, but he couldn’t find anything. He didn’t want to give up. After all Keith found him when no one else made that much effort to do so, he couldn’t give up now. The fact that the younger male was his heart did nothing to these feelings, just strengthened them.

It was like days passed by, but it could have been just seconds when Red roared up next to him and Black gave an excited purr-roar too. They found him. It was like his heavy grief had been lifted from his shoulders just to be replaced with worry. The ship they headed to resembled nothing it should have. It was like it went trough a meat drill. He couldn’t imagine how Keith had survived in it. But he must be alive as the two lions found him, right?   
Shiro really hoped so.

When they were near the remains of the ship Shiro got out of Black to explore the ship himself. The lions didn’t try to stop him, they waited patiently as he made his way to Keith. When he got there, he was completely shocked. Keith looked like nothing happened to him, he didn’t even have a bruise. But he was unconscious. He felt relief, that Keith seemed to be okay, but he was still worried, after all what if he was injured but from the inside? He needed to get them back as soon as possible to the Castle to put Keith in a healing pod. 

He lifted the smaller male into his arms and went back to the lions as fast as he could. He was half way to them when Black came to help him. Red looked like she went to sleep after purring with relief. Shiro sat down into his chair, with Keith still in his arms, he didn’t put him anywhere else, he had him in his lap as he made Black to get Red into her mouth and they made their way back to the others and the castle. “Guys, I’m coming back. Coran prepare a pod.” He said to the others. “Is this mean… You found him? Is he alright?” Matt was the first to react, he could tell rom his voice that he was happy, and relieved. He couldn’t imagine what was it like to try to stop Keith as he flew into his death, he didn’t want to imagine it, and he felt sorry for his friend as he lived it through. “Yeah, he is here with me. He isn’t injured from the outside as I can tell, but he is unconscious. He will need the pod immediately.” He pleaded to be in time. “I already started to prepare it.” Came Coran’s voice.

When they were back in the castle everybody waited for them. Keith was still in his arms as he walked out of Black. He saw their relieved but still worrying faces but didn’t stop, he walked straight to the infirmary to let Coran put the smaller body into the prepared pod. The other paladins were as much on the edge as he was, no one left the room while Coran made check ups in silence. They couldn’t bare words in that moment. It felt like hours when Coran finally spoke up. “Physically he is fine. He should wake up in an hour. However…” He fell into silence again. The tension was so thick it could have been sliced with a knife. Every member of Voltron prayed to everything and everybody in the heavens to let Keith be fine. 

It was Pidge who finally asked the question what might bring them sorrow to know the answer at. “What do you mean by ‘however’?” The question was out, and they all saw how Coran flinched before trying to answer with steady voice. “He seems fine, but he doesn’t respond in the way he should. I can’t really tell what and why it is until he wakes up. We can do nothing but wait.” It was like somebody said to wait still while they go to get the executioner. ‘Just wait’ it’s easier to say than to do. They sat in silence in the room, patiently waiting for Keith to wake up. Every minute was a torture to the ones who were inside the room. 

Eventually Coran sent away everybody to do something while they wait. Hunk was the first one to go to make dinner as Keith will be hungry if no, when he wakes up. The next ones were Pidge and Lance as they went to play video games, they couldn’t take the tension anymore. They needed something to think beside the worst-case scenario. Then everybody else left the room, leaving Shiro and Matt in it who couldn’t bring themselves to go away. They needed to be there while Keith got better.

 

It was exactly two hours since they put him into the pod when everybody went back, as Coran said he will wake up soon. He was right not even 5 minutes passed when the pod opened, and Keith nearly fell out of it. Shiro moved firstly to catch him. He held him in his arms. Finally, he was in his arms, alive and well. The ideal moment was interrupted, not by the rest of the team who nearly sobbed with joy as they wanted to hug the boy, but by Keith’s Marmora Blade as it was held to his neck. The joyful air seemed to freeze as Keith looked up with cold eyes at him. “Who the hell are you?” He asked while he stepped back, the blade still next to his throat. 

He looked around, he seemed to recognize everybody but Shiro, it was like he got stabbed by a frozen blade thousand time. Keith’s eyes finally fixated on Matt and became soft. “Matt” He sighed. “I thought you died in the Kerberos mission.” He said as he put his blade away while he made his way to the shocked Matt. “It’s good to see you buddy. And Katie…” He looked at Pidge, before he seemed to be aware of the stares. “What?! Why are you looking at me like I’m a ghost or something?” 

The others just looked at Shiro pointedly and Keith’s eyes shifted to him again. “Who is this guy? Is he a treat?” He snapped back into protecting mode. “Keith…” It was Matt who spoke. “Don’t you remember Shiro?” He asked softly, as if he was afraid of the answer they already knew. “No. Should I?” Was everything they gotas an answer. 

 

Shiro couldn’t move. He couldn’t even breathe. It was like someone pulled the rug out under his legs. He just got back his love from the near death. And he seemed to remember everything and everybody but him… How cruel could be the world, didn’t it take away enough from him? It needed the only thing that was irreplaceable in his life? Why did it need to take Keith away from him too? He just stood frozen in the middle of the room, as silent tears started pouring from his eyes. Oh how did he hate the whole universe in that moment…

**Author's Note:**

> I might add a second chapter which contain Keith's pov and the answers for the whys.


End file.
